Single and multiple warp nacelles

Single and multiple warp nacelles

As of late several of our players in the last month who have designed ships that are noted with having one, three, four, and five then even a six nacelle designed vessels. This had become an out of control problem of some truly goofy looking starships and spacedock designs. I really don’t care what the design is or looks like until the design gets too out of balance in the game terms and gives a too big of advantage to one side.

The single nacelle versions of the starships have been around for more than three decades (Saladin/Hermes-classes) and the same with the triple nacelle design (Federation-class). In the past we have played with these vessels and even just recently we played a three interconnected missions with a Constellation-class, however I have never allowed more than four nacelles in the design.

To simulate single- or triple-nacelle designs or even more nacelles, the following optional rules I have generated out of similar ones found on this forum for the Coda system that someone expanded out. I made changes to the system to facilitate its use in spacedock. Their hand drawn sketches looked cool but in combat I decided that they were given an advantage that the others did not have.

With the following rules that we have instituted below are the rules and examples generated out of a standard Galaxy-class Explorer nacelles. I have altered the nacelles to show the versions changes in the SU’s cost.

Example: Base line
Twin Warp Drive Nacelles: Type 6D <105>
Speed: 6.0/9.2/9.6 [1 power/.2 warp speed]
Special configuration: Standard two nacelles
PIS: Type G (10 hours of Maximum warp) <14>

Single-nacelle Warp Drive
• Costs 75% of SU’s for that of a standard twin-nacelle system.
• Additionally, the reduction of one full warp speed factor – 1.0 (the single warp factor reduction can be broken down across the standard/sustainable/maximum such as -.3/-.3/-.4 or some similar combination or even all to one of the three, the decrease cannot be higher than the standard/sustainable) or the lack of reliability at 75% of the PSI’s maximum speed (if a Max hours is 4, after three hour the difficulty increases by one)
• Damage to the nacelle reduces warp speed to zero from first hit with what is called a plasma disruption whether there was a plasma breach in the hull. This assumes that there was no significant damage to the nacelle.

Example
Single Warp Drive Nacelles: Type 6D <105 – 26 (26.25) = 79>
Speed: 5.7/8.9/9.2 [1 power/.2 warp speed]
Special configuration: Single Warp nacelle
PIS: Type G (10 hours of Maximum warp (difficulty +1 after 7 hours)) <14>

Triple-nacelle Warp Drive or more
• Costs 25% more per warp nacelle beyond than SU’s for that for a standard twin-nacelle system.
• Additionally, speed increased by point one warp factor of speed per category (the point one warp factor can be spread across in whatever formula but suggests the increase across the standard/sustainable/maximum such as +.1/+.1/+.1 the increase cannot be higher than the sustainable/Maximum).
• With the extra warp nacelle I suggested that an automatic two hours of maximum warp speed is a given.
• Note the Number of extra nacelles do accumulate bonuses beyond that the addition of a single nacelle. But an additional one hour of maximum warp speed per nacelles up to five nacelles. But exceptions to the rule will be allowed if the design and operation is feasible and makes sense.
• Damage to the nacelle reduces warp speeds to by seventy percent from first hit with what is called a plasma disruption whether there was a plasma breach in the hull. This assumes that there was no significant damage to the nacelle.

Example
Triple Warp Drive Nacelles: Type 6D <105 + 27 (26.25) = 132>
Speed: 6.1/9.3/9.7 [1 power/.2 warp speed]
Special configuration: Triple nacelle, two (one port and one starboard,) one nacelle centerline and high.
PIS: Type G (10 hours of Maximum warp (+1 hour to triple nacelle)) <14>

Example
Quad Warp Drive Nacelles: Type 6D <105 – 27 (26.25) = 159>
Speed: 6.2/9.4/9.8 [1 power/.2 warp speed]
Special configuration: Quad nacelle design two port and two starboard high and low of the secondary hull.
PIS: Type G (10 hours of Maximum warp (+2 hour to Quad nacelle)) <14>

The 9.99 taking up the extra .2 warp factor points that would have made the warp speed as warp 10.1 beyond the maximum warp speed for The Next Generation era warp speeds.

Embedded-Nacelle Warp Drive
• Costs 75% more per warp nacelle beyond than SU’s for that for a standard twin-nacelle system.
• Additionally, speed decreased by one per category (the Embedded warp factor reduction -.1/-.1/-.1).
• With the embedded warp nacelles I suggested that an automatic one hours of maximum warp speed is taken away.
This rule takes into consideration that the embedded nacelles are twin embedded or single embedded nacelles into a ship.
• Damage to the nacelle reduces warp speed to eighty-five percent from first hit with what is called a plasma disruption whether there was a plasma breach in the hull. This assumes that there was no significant damage to the nacelle.
• The benefit’s to the shields of +100 to the shield protection and +10 to thresholds.
• I usually force the incoming fire to have to burn the SU’s in Embedded Nacelles away before damaging the nacelles themselves and the rule of plasma disruption still applies to the nacelles.

Example
Embedded Warp Drive Nacelles: Type 6D <105>
Speed: 5.9/9.1/9.5 [1 power/.2 warp speed]
Special configuration: Embedded nacelles <32>
PIS: Type G (10 hours of Maximum warp (difficulty +1 after 7 hours)) <14>

Partly Embedded-Nacelle Warp Drive
• Costs 88% per warp nacelle under than SU’s for that for a standard twin-nacelle system.
• Additionally, speed decreased by zero per Standard, point one per Sustainable and point two for maximum. (The Embedded warp factor reduction -.0/-.1/-.1).
• With the partly embedded warp nacelles I suggested that an automatic one hours of maximum warp speed is taken away.
This rule takes into consideration that the embedded nacelles are twin partly embedded or single embedded nacelles into a ship the cost for the Partly embedded nacelles costing two times the SU’s.
• Damage to the nacelle reduces warp speed to seventy-five percent from first hit with what is called a plasma disruption whether there was a plasma breach in the hull. This assumes that there was no significant damage to the nacelle.
• The benefit’s to the shields for a partly embedded nacelles of +50 to the shield protection and +5 to thresholds.

Example
Embedded Warp Drive Nacelles: Type 6D <105 – 12 (12.6) = 93>
Speed: 6.0/9.1/9.5 [1 power/.2 warp speed]
Special configuration: Embedded nacelles <16>
PIS: Type G (9 hours of Maximum warp (difficulty +1 after 7 hours)) <14>

Twin sets of Warp Drive Nacelles
• Some Federation starships have been installed with the two complete Warp Drive nacelles and systems. These do not cost any different than a standard but SU’s cost for both sets of warp nacelles. There is a Nebula-class Prototype version that is this way and there may be others that are similar that I have not seen.
• The secondary set of Warp nacelles should not cost more than the Primary set of warp nacelles.

Example:
Primary set of Twin Warp Drive Nacelles: Type 6D <105>
Speed: 6.0/9.2/9.6 [1 power/.2 warp speed]
Special configuration: Standard two nacelles
PIS: Type G (10 hours of Maximum warp) <14>
Secondary set of Twin Warp drive Nacelles: Type 5.6 <53>
Speed: 5.0/9.0/7.6 [1 power/.2 warp speed]
Special configuration: Standard two nacelles
PIS: Type B (5 hours of Maximum warp) <4>

Other Warp Nacelles
• Retractable Nacelles still cost 3 SU’s and 5 power and 1 round to deploy as per Spacedock sourcebook.
• Variable-geometry nacelles still coat 5 SU’s and 5 power and 1 round to deploy as per Spacedock sourcebook.
• Embedded nacelles see above.
• Coaxial Warp Drive, Soliton Wave Propulsion, Quantum Slipstream Drive and Transwarp Drive Same as per Spacedock sourcebook..

All of the math is rounded up no matter how low of number are reached.

Personally, I think that more than four nacelles are just out of the realm of reality, but what do I know they could put a vessel with more than four nacelles in the next movie. As for the embedded nacelles I like the looks of a vessel with embedded nacelles or partly embedded nacelles like the Defiant, Saber and Streamrunner-class. Of the Triple nacelle designs the Federation-class and All Good Things Enterprise look good in the triple nacelles but pictures of the Excelsior and Miranda-class do not look as good. And the Quad nacelle designs such as the Constellation, Prometheus and Cheyenne-classes look really good and wish to see more. Yet, I am a traditionalist I like two nacelles but I have made several with the Quad nacelles and triple nacelles not to mention the how many with the Embedded nacelles. Like my other designs we keep it in the group that we use but when I will post in the future I will post as a standard version. I like these rules work best in the Original Series designs. The twin sets of nacelles I really don’t see the relevance in the design but respect the artistic design and there may be another thought behind the design. I still love the Nebula-class after all these years.

Let me know what you think of these rules. I was greeted with a mixed review of support and rebellion and nonchalant concern from our group. When it came to a vote over the rules they voted a majority of group to adopt the rules as written above. There is some of our group that don’t care what the changes in the rules are made, then some who think that any change is wrong and resist any changes, and the rest once the explanations are made they make up their own minds.

view for referance http://forum.trek-rpg.net/showthread...ghlight=single

Nice. I quite like that, some good thought gone into the work to flavour it and explain why there may be design reasons for single, triple, quad and embedded warp nacelles...

I kind of had to come up with the rules as I have a two inch thick stack of ships with more than four ships sitting on the top of my book case that I said no to just in the last year. There is one with seven nacelles and two with more than seven as the sketch looks like there are more than a dozen. There is one a Borg Probe with four partly embedded Galaxy-class warp nacelles. Then there is my favorite a ship that looks like a Raindeer streched out and with embedded nacelles.

Before I presented the changes I thought about it for a while and looked at what was presented here before writting up the rules.

So far after two weeks of having it presented to the group I have had no ships submitted to me yet.

Here is some added notes that are a collection of ideas and additions to the above notes. I just cleaned them up from hand writen notes in my spiral note books.

Other Warp Nacelle Configurations
• Retractable Nacelles, Coaxial Warp Drive, Soliton Wave Propulsion, Quantum Slipstream Drive and Trans Warp Drive Same as per Spacedock sourcebook or to the altered version per Battlestar Galactica and Andromeda.
• Hyper drives are not included in this system of setting up for the drives and has no effects from the set ups above. (see my posting on that)

The Vulcan Ring Nacelles
• Costs 25% more than SU’s for that for a standard twin-nacelle system.
• Additionally, speed increased by point one warp factor of speed per category (the point one warp factor can be spread across in whatever formula but suggested the increase across the standard/sustainable/maximum such as +.1/+.1/+.1 the increase cannot be higher than the sustainable/Maximum.
• The ring is visible on the exterior and is typical of the 22nd century Vulcan starships. These Nacelles are still in wide use but newer innovations of the Starfleet nacelles have been made more reliable and cost effective.
• Being so visible, the ring nacelle is more vulnerable to damage. The additional uprating packages can be added conservatively to create a vessels drive that has a sensible appearance.
• The nacelles usually are placed on the end of a nacelle pylon and encircle a portion of the ship. Leaving it an exposed target of plus two to any attack.

Example: Vulcan Ring Warp Drive Nacelles: Type 6D <105 x 1.25 (26.25) = 131.25 (132)>
Speed: 6.1/9.3/9.7 [1 power/.2 warp speed]
Special configuration: Standard two nacelles

Tetryon Warp Drive nacelles
Power Cost: there is no change but for each warp factor there is -1 to the power requirement once they reach a factor.
SU Cost: + 10 to the cost of the warp nacelles and +2 to any upgrades.
• The Tetryon Warp Nacelles use specialized warp plasma of Tetryon plasma and is considered hazardous to stability of space when there is a release of warp plasma. The bonuses to having +2 hours of Maximum, +2 to all warp factors, and the embedded nacelles penalties are ignored. An additional bonus is that the there is a power increase of one percent from the warp core for the Tetryon nature of the core. The adjustments the bonus upgrades can be rearranged downward to Standard but not upward to maximum with no costs.
The repairs to the warp a system requires twice the time to make repairs to the drive than that of the standard warp drive.
Starfleet has only begun experiments in the warp drive systems in the early 24th century. The release of the Tetryon Warp Plasma causes a trialing starship to stall to half the impulse speed. The ship stalled must purge its Bussard collectors and plasma chiller grills of the Tetryon plasma before it can return to warp speed or full impulse.

Example: propulsion systems
Warp drive Nacelles: Type 6D <105 +10 = 115>
Speed: 6.0 (+.2 = 6.2)/9.2 (+.5 = 9.4)/9.9 (+.2 = 9.99 or 9.92) [1 power/.2 warp speed -1 per Warp Factor]
Special configuration: two nacelles Tetryon
PIS: Type H (12 + 2 = 14 hours of Maximum warp) <16>

Additional Notes
• Most of these types of nacelles such as embedded and a single warp nacelle can be used together using the greater of the two SU’s cost. All the drawbacks or bonuses apply to the nacelles as well. Most ships have one or the other but a few individual ships have two of these systems such as a single nacelle, which is embedded into the keel of the hull of an alien freighter that bloomed into a standard design for the entire species starfleet.
• Damage to the warp plasma system causes bleeding Warp Plasma. The bleeding the warp plasma cause additional damage to the ship, for each round the damage increases by one to the EPS grid and/or the hull.
• The leaking EPS Grid of the warp core can be shut off with a difficulty challenge of 12 when it is manually making the adjustments. The physical damage that can be done to an individual caught in the heat and radiation effects. A prolonged exposure to the heat and radiation can kill.
• If as in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan the Warp nacelle of the Reliant was blasted off by a photon torpedo and phaser bank blast, and allowed the plasma t escapes the breach in the nacelle support pylon. So such damage as a breach in the EPS Grid each round causes an additional two damage per round to the EPS and then one damage to the hull from the point of plasma bleed.
• If the Warp Plasma is ignited while leaking from the EPS Grid the plasma does two time the count of the Power transfer rate in damage to the ship in the resulting explosion. If the plasma is leaking inside the hull the explosion results in an explosion, four time that of an external explosion.
Example: A Klingon Vor’cha class starship bleeding warp plasma from the port nacelle has its plasma ignited the resulting explosion is 600 damage to the ship.
• With a breach in the EPS Grid looses the power of the transfer rate for use to other systems to use. A ship with a loss of the specific amount could be crippled in battle. The bleeding EPS Grid is just as dangerous to that of a damaged warp core.
• Tetryon warp plasma causes even more damage when the explosion twice that of a normal warp plasma. In addition, a Tetryon explosion causes damage to the barrier between subspace and normal space. A Tetryon breach to subspace is a dangerous anomaly measuring one MU per 100 of power being generated by the Warp Core. (So a warp core generating 549 power would create a Tetryon rift five and half MU’s of space not to mention the destruction of the starship that is destroyed.)
• Any warp core breach must take into account the damage to the barrier between subspace on the explosion. An explosion can cause an eruption of subspace into normal space. a failure of difficulty roll of 2 on a roll of 2d6 to the fabric of space roll when the Game Master sees the need to roll of it.
• If the warp engines are pushed too far, for too long and the nacelles are over heated after too long the nacelles become useless and take a material to replace the materials lost. In the search of a systems, when Starfleet repair yards are far out of reach of the ship is a difficult search for a ship with a crippled warp engine. The search of a star system for precious materials needed to repair the nacelles. The increase difficulty of the lack of warp drive increases the difficulty of not finding the ore needed to fourteen. (See below for the rebuilding of warp coils.)
• The initial construction of warp capable ships is difficult without a supply of basic material that is used in the construction of a working ship. The starships warp nacelles are the most difficult as they require warp material that are not native to planets. If the characters need to build, a ship to carry them to the next star System and they have the knowledge of a space travel. The difficulty would take months to create the materials from raw materials and the generation of more exotic material needed to create a ship. For each individual SU of the ship, the time it takes to create and equals three day per SU.
• A secondary plasma grid can be installed in a ship and take over cutting off the primary grid and supplementing the systems until repairs can be made to a ship.
• The use of surillum can be used in many different systems. The Surillium can increase shield efficacy and warp engine functions and weapons systems are the namely the best options. The use of Surilliun increases efficacy by ten percent to whatever system is coated or injected with this gas.

Here is one last one I missed when I coppied over the notes from Word file.

Multiphasic Warp Nacelles
Power Cost: 1 power .15 warp factor
SU Cost: +7 to warp nacelles
The Multiphasic Warp Nacelles are adjustable and can be adjusted to mimic another vessels warp field hiding its identity. Most of the major powers have deemed the Multiphasic Warp Nacelles illegal, while their intelligence agencies have vessels that have this technology installed in spy vessels. For the price of three times the cost of the SU’s in Gold Pressed Latinum, a Multiphase Warp Nacelle can be bought.
Only the most discriminating sensor systems can detect the differences in the warp fields. A sensor system with strength of eight or better and a gain of class beta can even be used to detect the difference in the field with a skilled operator that knows the differences.
The Multiphasic Warp Nacelles must be programmed with the field emissions of the designated warp field that it is intended to mimic. A simple scan of a vessel by the ships lateral sensors within 20 MU’s by either a probe or a starships sensors system of class 7 strength or better. The Nacelles are capable of holding no more than five different patterns.
Any damage sustained to the warp drive immediately shows that the system is a Multiphase Nacelle design. Once the damage is done, the system cannot take on the disguise of another Warp Field. An extreme high warp speed will begin to show that the Multiphase Nacelles warp field’s failure.

Example: Twin Warp Drive Nacelles: Type 6D <112>
Speed: 6.0/9.2/9.6 [1 power/.15 warp speed]
Special configuration: two multiphase Warp Nacelles
PIS: Type G (10 hours of Maximum warp) <14>

However, this can be done with any warp nacelle by making the adjustment manually to the nacelle and adjustments to the nacelles plasma flow. The difficulty is such that not any engineer can pull it off. Only the best of the engineers can do so. Any lateral and long-range sensor with strength of class 5 with a class alpha gain can easily make the detection of the adjustments if there is an intense enough scan concentration to the sensors (an addition on 5 power to the scan).

Even though it is falsifying the warp signature manually there has been no laws created about doing so yet by any of the major governments but is not looked upon highly, where the Multiphase Nacelles are illegal.

This war drive system is difficult to operate that it is still considered to be experimental and most have not bothered to do much with advancing its technology.

Omega1967 - Awesome! Could you do these in CODA?

Sorry no, I know enough of CODA to use it to make it over into Spacedock and ICON basic but that is it. If someone out there does have at it.

I will look into generating CODA version of these modifications but it will take time and i have to dig through the storage area for my Decipher books and then study up to understand the system before I can decide for sure that I can make the enhancements fit the CODA ships.